The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast | NetSuite vs Intacct

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Doug leads a discussion with Matt and Emily about the key differences between NetSuite and Sage Intacct, challenging common misconceptions about company size and enterprise readiness. The conversation explores how implementation partners, industry-specific needs, and automation capabilities should drive ERP software decisions rather than revenue thresholds or employee count.

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• (00:00) - Welcome to the Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast
• (00:35) - NetSuite vs Intact: Initial Thoughts
• (02:17) - History and Overview of NetSuite and Intact
• (04:03) - Comparing User Experiences
• (11:33) - NetSuite's Sales Tactics and Support Issues
• (21:22) - Dynamic Allocations: Intact vs NetSuite
• (27:40) - Personal Experiences: Choosing Between NetSuite and Intacct
• (29:50) - Evaluating Software Based on Needs, Not Size
• (32:44) - Common Misconceptions About Enterprise Solutions
• (38:51) - Cost vs. Value: The True Cost of Implementation
• (43:49) - The Importance of Automation in Accounting
• (46:30) - Final Thoughts and Disagreements
• (47:47) - Dad Joke and Future Plans

Connect with the Hosts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybmadere
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlescault
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlewis715

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Creators & Guests

Host

Doug Lewis

Host

Emily Madere

Host

Matt Lescault

What is The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast ?

The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast is your inside track to the world of Sage Intacct and the broader accounting industry. Hosts Emily Madere, Doug Lewis, and Matt Lescault bring their unique perspectives and expertise to explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in this rapidly evolving space.
In each episode, the trio explores topics like the power of the Sage ecosystem, best practices for CAS, new Sage product features, and the impact of artificial intelligence. They'll be joined by industry experts and Sage insiders who share unfiltered insights you won't find anywhere else.
Whether you're an accountant looking to harness technology, a business exploring Sage solutions, or anyone fascinated by the future of finance, this is your show. Tune in for an unvarnished, unofficial look at the Sage heartbeat powering accounting today.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Doug Lewis: All right, so where are we going to jump in today. So it's funny. So we we were quasi just chatting a couple minutes ago before we started recording this thing. And Emily just jumped right into it, which I love.

Emily Madere: Just calling me out here.

Doug Lewis: No, it's not calling you.It was just funny. We're like, oh, we gotta we should probably start recording this at some point before [00:00:30] we just waste all of our lives, uh, talking about nothing and not actually capturing any of it. So instead of just kind of going through stuff today, I think the plan initially was to. Pros and cons, NetSuite for Sage Intacct kind of I don't want to say, you know, competition, but we're just gonna look at the two, uh, one on one, um, kind of compare them. Good, bad, ugly. Why would you pick one over the other? And then out of nowhere, Emily, you.

Emily Madere: Know, she's just like.

Doug Lewis: I hate.

Emily Madere: Netsuite. They're The.

Doug Lewis: Garbage.

Emily Madere: It's [00:01:00] awful. Trash? Yeah. No. Well, we're definitely going to get into that. And I definitely want to share my story because I think it's interesting. But yeah, little, little um, preview is I don't like that too much. But we'll get into that.

Doug Lewis: And as a disclaimer, if anyone from that is listening, that is Emily's independent opinion. Um, so if and when we ever end up working together in some capacity, I love it.

Emily Madere: I love.

Doug Lewis: Everybody.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I love everybody myself here.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, well that's okay. You know, it's, uh, it's all right, but I [00:01:30] thought we were like, we should probably start recording at this point, because coming in hot on the on the strong opinion, which I absolutely love, seems to.

Emily Madere: Be going around.

Matt Lescault: I'm waiting to find out if this is like, just a personal pet peeve or I want I want to know the story.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.Were you like, cut out of like, like an original founder of Oracle's Will or something and and you. Yeah.

Emily Madere: Yeah. I actually when I was three years old, I wrote code for Oracle, and, um, they said I wasn't old enough so I couldn't get a cut.

Matt Lescault: So then you went into marketing? [00:02:00]

Emily Madere: I went to marketing and sales. Yeah. My life story is very confusing. Well, we.

Doug Lewis: Should we should dive into that at some point here. But, um, since Emily, you seem really impartial, um, you know, on NetSuite, which I think at this point we've all figured out that's the case. Do you want to maybe just give us, like, a history of of kind of NetSuite and in an unbiased way? Let's put it that way. Let's just get.

Emily Madere: The people my unbiased. Yes. I and actually are they I did some research on NetSuite. So I do have some [00:02:30] notes. Um, so so NetSuite was a net ledger. Excuse me. Was founded in 1989, 1990, 98. Excuse me. I'm very dyslexic. Um, but it was acquired by Oracle in 2016. So, um, kind of. And I just want to compare it to Sage real quick. Um, Intacct was founded in 1999, I think acquired by Intacct around 2016 as well.

Matt Lescault: 17. 17. 17.

Emily Madere: Um, [00:03:00] so kind of kind of the same story there. They tout themselves as being a sweet solution. So wrapped into their financials, they have CRM, e-commerce, um, payroll, um, business intelligence. They have about 40,000 customers worldwide. They have offices in 20 different countries. They have about 8000 employees globally. They sell like Sage. They sell directly through NetSuite, or they work with VR partners, [00:03:30] kind of the same as Sage.

Matt Lescault: And the question for you there, and when you said the 8000, is that just in the NetSuite or is that Oracle as a whole that's globally.

Emily Madere: Okay. Um, for I think for Oracle. Yeah. All right. And then their fiscal year is May 31st.

Doug Lewis: Exciting stuff. And it was that was actually more unbiased than I envisioned it being.

Emily Madere: Yeah. Thanks. I thought it was my it was literally my bulletin notes.

Doug Lewis: Just like deadpan delivery. Um, which which I love because [00:04:00] we'll get into the opinion stuff kind of in a minute here. But, um, Matt, do you have any experience directly? I don't want to say competing, converting, selling. What's kind of your. Because everyone knows, obviously Sage Intacct is, you know, one of your, your bread and butters. Um, but when we look at like NetSuite, you know, how much experience have you really come across kind of in your, in your organization.

Matt Lescault: So NetSuite competes day in and day out with Intacct, especially in my work with supporting the direct sales team. Uh, we [00:04:30] see NetSuite and uh, depending on the vertical. So like nonprofit, you see them a little bit less financial services almost every single time. Um, professional services and every single time. So you kind of, you know, it really depends on the vertical and so forth, really, really comparable products. So I have some experience using, uh, or I should say my team. I don't want to overstate my own, uh, my own experience. Uh, but the my team has experienced using that delivery and accounting solutions. We [00:05:00] are not an implementer of NetSuite, nor have we ever been an implementer of NetSuite. But in order for us to do a good job when it comes to scoping and providing client feedback, it's really important to understand the product and understand the differences between the two products. So I do spend time keeping abreast of what is going on with NetSuite, what they're what they're up to when it comes to their, uh, investments and sales tactics. As much, as much as I can. Uh, I am a little bit more partial or impartial than [00:05:30] Emily is. I don't have any particular hate for them. Uh, I think as our organization has just decided to, uh, what we say is bleed green. So, you know, we want to be a mile deep in our knowledge. So we're A11 product kind of organization when it comes to implementations. That's not anything to say that NetSuite is not a good product to to to go. But I do think there's some very specific use cases and some information that's really interesting when it comes to making a decision around the selection process.

Doug Lewis: That's interesting. Um, in the sense [00:06:00] that I love the bleed green thing. I've never heard that from you before, which is kind of kind of unique. Um, why? So I guess why at some point you made that decision like, hey, we're going to implement just, just intacct that's going to be our, our go to every single time. I would imagine that you were evaluating all the competitors, including that suite, at the time when you kind of made that decision, or do you just like fall backwards into that? And we're like, well, we have some clients using it. Let's just keep this train rolling.

Matt Lescault: You know, I just closed my eyes and I threw a dart and I hit Sage know, it was it was the three products. [00:06:30] We looked at Microsoft, we looked at NetSuite. We looked at intact as the ERP of choice. I think there's two real components that we, uh, that made a big difference. I mean, Intacct is sponsored by the AICPA. It's the only, uh, sponsored product by the AICPA, and that goes a long way when it comes to trust. Trust in the accounting accounting world. And and then the second is and it's kind of funny I think I saw it on G2. There's a quote [00:07:00] that says the user experience. That's what it really looks like. It was built in the 1990s where if you look at the user interface of Intacct, it's far more intuitive. It's far more, uh, more closely aligned to what you'd expect out of a QuickBooks or a Xero online products from a navigation perspective. It's it's an easier training. So for us, we saw that as some huge wins when it came to adoption of our staff and our clients.

Doug Lewis: From a UX experience, by the way. Um, it was pretty funny. So I go to a [00:07:30] lot of these conferences, right? Everyone always talks about their software and, you know, blah, blah, blah, and why I should introduce them to all my clients that I work with. And, um, I there was a small like, startup accounting software organization that's trying to compete with like QuickBooks, you know, NetSuite Intacct Zero. All the big players out there and the pitch from the the sales rep who just like cornered me in the hallway was we've gamified the accounting software business.

Emily Madere: Gamified.

Doug Lewis: Gamified. [00:08:00] Correct. Yeah.

Emily Madere: Can I get a can you define that for me?

Doug Lewis: Oh, that's that was my question because I'm like, you got me hooked. You got me hooked, guy. What are we talking about? I'm not going to name the company too, because I don't want to publicly throw them under the bus and see if they can make it. But he essentially said, you know how Robinhood is gamified trading. Like, like, you know, uh, investment trading. He said, that's what we've done to the accounting sector. We've made it fun for all the staff to manage the books of their clients. And I'm just like, what in the world I know, well, I didn't, [00:08:30] I didn't want I'm like, I'm not doing a demo like, don't, we're not, we're done there. And then, you know, just kind of cordially, you know, that's great. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to keep in touch, blah blah blah blah. But, uh, you know, from a user experience perspective that was interesting that you mentioned that in the sense that Intacct versus NetSuite, you found that one was pretty superior to the other in terms of like build, feel how people move through the software.

Matt Lescault: There's also that there's also the reality that from a ease of use perspective, Intacct has always ranked higher from an ease of configuration, ease of deployment, ease of [00:09:00] utilization moving forward. And again, especially when we chose Intacct when we're really just an outsource accounting firm. Ease of use went a long way in the decision making.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Okay. So now now we got to hit it. Emily. We've talked about it a few times already. You hate you hate NetSuite with everything in you. Why is that? Is it the. Is it the ease of use? Is it the customer experience? What is it that has just turned you?

Matt Lescault: And do you have a NetSuite voodoo doll that you like? Stab.

Emily Madere: No no no no. [00:09:30] Um. I think hate is a strong word. Maybe I shouldn't have used hate. Strongly dislike. Okay. I think I think NetSuite is a great solution for specific types of companies. Okay. Like the companies that that Sage Intacct doesn't necessarily want to focus in on, like, uh, retail, manufacturing, financial services. My issue with NetSuite comes in, um, with their support and their selling tactics. So, for example, I was helping a organization, [00:10:00] um, evaluate intact. And they were also evaluating NetSuite, which I think competition in the in, in my world is great. But I think as a seller of one product, you need to be respectful, you need to be open and honest with the client. And in this situation with NetSuite, they were offering my client a free NetSuite implementation. They were spilling absolute success. Yeah. Sweet success. Um, they were basically lying about intact, [00:10:30] uh, to my client. And, um, luckily, I built a relationship with my client. They came back and they just asked me like, hey, are these things true? Like they are? They're telling me these things about intact. And we had to go and we had a separate call and we talked through, um, you know, these things aren't necessarily true. Okay. Yes, this is true. But let me explain a little bit more because you don't have the right context. And then in another situation, I actually was helping move a client away from NetSuite onto intact. And turns [00:11:00] out like they were completely lied to during the sales process and they weren't getting the support that they were promised. Which, and let me preference that that can happen even if you you purchase intact, if you don't have the right partner or whatever that looks like. But it's not it's not the first time I've heard about that with NetSuite.

Matt Lescault: Well, I think what your client experience was really centered around that sweet success. So that's a major tactic that NetSuite uses to make the cost of acquisition seem [00:11:30] a lot cheaper and sweet. Success is really self implementation, but it's not really the way it's described in the sales process for clients and a lot of clients have a very bad experience with it. Now there's other clients that also have the internal capabilities to handle that and do it, but there's a lot of organizations that don't. So essentially, it's interesting that you said that financial services is a better fit for for for NetSuite. Um, quick, quick number here. Only [00:12:00] 4% of their client base is financial services.

Doug Lewis: Really?

Emily Madere: Crickets.

Emily Madere: Crickets. Yeah. No, no, I know, and I and I agree. Um, and that's just really in my experience, I really see it heavily in the manufacturing retail space.

Matt Lescault: Quick thing here. What is Net suite's number one industry and what's the percentage. I don't think anybody's going to get this. I didn't know it.

Doug Lewis: Well that's not.

Doug Lewis: A good that's not a good start.

Emily Madere: I know. I can tell you.

Doug Lewis: It was manufacturing. I was in my head. That was.

Matt Lescault: That would have been my my [00:12:30] kind of.

Emily Madere: I can tell you that. I know they're trying to get into the healthcare space they just released. Um, more functionality in the healthcare space. So no, it's not healthcare. Maybe nonprofit, but intact has a large customer base and nonprofit. And I'm thinking through, um, definitely not construction, I don't know what is it?

Matt Lescault: Professional services. The catchall makes up 2,028% of their client [00:13:00] base. Second is and I found this one very interesting. Second is SaaS at 17% of their client base. Uh, no. No. 18% of their client base. But what a lot of people don't know is intact, surpassed NetSuite in market share of in the SaaS, uh, industry and owns 17% of the entire market share in the SaaS industry. So there's.

Doug Lewis: Now we're talking we're talking are we talking global numbers? Us numbers like we're you know, what are the figures. [00:13:30]

Doug Lewis: That you're tossing out?

Matt Lescault: It's it's only tracked from a US perspective. Us. Okay. And what what data is released? Um, that we have, but that is, uh, that's kind of telling to me and something interesting when you're, when, when a client is looking at this and trying to evaluate where to be, like, I wouldn't go manufacturing currently with intact. And I know that we have you know, Sdmo is a Sage distribution and.

Emily Madere: Manufacturing and.

Matt Lescault: Manufacturing operations [00:14:00] and and that's being heavily developed currently. And I think that there's a path in which intact will be, uh, competing with with NetSuite in the manufacturing realm. But I don't, but it's not today. Quite frankly, I got a funny story for you. This happened a long time ago, so I'm I'm I'm at a I maybe I shouldn't say a bar, but I'm at a bar. I'm sitting down and this guy next to me is in NetSuite and. But in the CRM and I go to, I'm like, [00:14:30] what the heck are you doing in NetSuite and their CRM? Because the CRM is not a good product. It is. It is not a particularly good product. And it's funny, that sparked a very tight friendship that we have to this day in which, you know, we we talk like on a weekly basis and so forth, but they really talk about this suite of the financial services and the CRM and, uh, and the payroll side of things. But [00:15:00] I don't know that they do the other things that well. And it's really a sales, uh, a benefit to, to the client base. I actually really do believe in the concept of integrated products and allowing, uh, software solutions like a, a HubSpot or a Salesforce to be the leader to, to get the to really focus their time on being the CRM and integrate that with your true GL, you know, mid-market GL.

Emily Madere: So And, [00:15:30] Matt, just to clarify for our listeners, you're really talking about Netsuite's approach, which is sweet success, which is what I like to call being kind of everything to everyone versus Intacct being a best in class software and allowing customers to choose what other best in class solutions they want for them.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, well. And sweet success is specific to the implementation, but the suite of NetSuite and where they're trying to sell you the CRM payroll and their GL together, that's that's the other tactic that concerns me a little [00:16:00] bit about the the quality of product that clients are getting now. If we take NetSuite from a GL versus Intacct from a GL is financial solutions. There's nuance difference, different differences. And when I talk about nuance differences, I talk about it from an industry specific. And I know I bring this up all the time. So a macro and micro vertical. And I actually look at industries in kind of a macro vertical, a mid vertical and a micro vertical. And the way I can explain this is health care would be a [00:16:30] macro vertical. Patient services would be a mid vertical. And a general practitioner or you know, your GP that you go to on a daily basis would be your micro vertical. So as an example they're each having slightly nuanced components of, of need uh from a system and a reporting and key performance indicators and so forth. And so that's the nuanced purchasing, you know, and that's where I want buyers to really understand what questions [00:17:00] they should be asking through this process and where a net sweet wins, where an intact wins and where maybe there's not, there's not such a large difference as you need to go with what company aligns with you best. You know, from a from a strategy, from a long term goal.

Emily Madere: And I'd also like to add to that, um, because, you know, part of the problem is picking the right solution, right? Let's just say we're looking at intact and NetSuite, but the implementation partner as well. Do you have the capacity? Do you want to implement a software [00:17:30] like that by yourself, or do you want to rely on a partner, and is that partner the right partner?

Matt Lescault: So one of the things I want to talk about, like this is all about the good, the bad, the ugly, right. And we're trying to talk about what the differences are. And I keep saying there's not a ton of differences. It's very nuanced. The things that we look at, um, I'll talk about one specific dynamic allocations and intact beats the allocation approach within NetSuite every day [00:18:00] okay. Dynamic allocations, there's two kinds of allocations. There's what we call transaction allocations which are fixed allocations not based on variable. We say okay, every month we're going to allocate 20% of rent to this department, 35% to this department, of 45% to this other department. I don't know if I did my math right right there, but that doesn't matter. And you can use that transaction allocation on any transaction within this within the system. But it's fixed. It's always the same. You're going to use [00:18:30] that. Dynamic allocations is the concept of a variable a dynamic a variable allocation. So when data within the system changes it changes the allocation of that expense. And within certain industries I see this in financial services a lot, um, in certain industries and in non-profits, I should I should say it comes up in non-profits a lot as well. Um, in certain need from allocations. You need some really, really complex approaches [00:19:00] to those in which there's multi tiers of variability within it. And now intact. It's almost a no brainer. You do not want to go and use the allocation methodology just the way that you construct it within NetSuite. And I don't do this every day so I can't give you the exact things. But what I've always been, it's always been talked to me about is the way that you have to construct it within. Netsuite is so far more complicated and harder to maintain than what [00:19:30] the what? The way that Intacct is approached the same, same capability.

Doug Lewis: Now, Matt, with with that specific component, is that more of an implementation success or failure kind of reliance, or is that just this is this is straight just programing? I mean, this is just ones and zeros.

Matt Lescault: I'm going to go with neither.

Matt Lescault: Okay. Um, and the reason I say that is intact and NetSuite are configuration based systems, not code or custom [00:20:00] uh, systems. The best way I can explain this, uh, for those that that that want to know better is like an X three in Sage is a completely custom solution that every instance of x three that is done is basically done differently. Sage Intacct NetSuite configuration based solutions. Say, here's a set of configurations and how to approach configuring it and utilizing a module. But there's a lot of there's a lot of levers that can be pulled [00:20:30] and moved to make that happen. So it's still custom, but it's within a confinement of a configuration dashboard if you want to put it that way. But it's not. But but it's not the implementation people per se. It is the capability of that configuration. How the configuration has been designed where intact is superior.

Doug Lewis: Let's coming back to kind of that that UX again I mean really just how it's designed, how it flows, how people can interact with it as opposed to the core functionality of it.

Matt Lescault: Yes.

Matt Lescault: And [00:21:00] I would say it also has to do with the way that it was conceptualized from the very beginning on how the dynamic allocations would be deployed. From a function perspective, dynamic allocations actually go to what we call a user defined book. So what what you do is you allocate into a user defined book, which is separate, like almost like, uh, think about cash and accrual and then think about this separate book on the side where you're allocating into it for, uh, for things like, okay, [00:21:30] I'm going to give an example, I have payroll, I'm a professional services, I do time. That time is related to projects and clients and different departments and so forth. And instead of having to do a 100 line journal entry for my payroll to get it in and get in and know what my profitability is by project or, uh, or so forth, I use dynamic allocations and automatically does it for me, but it Post-It a separate book. So when I consolidate, I see that information. But I also have a confinement, I have a confinement of that data. [00:22:00] And I can really review that data and make sure that it's accurate and that I've constructed that allocation correctly.

Doug Lewis: It's it's a that's a lot for one feature that we're hitting, which I love. I mean, because if we're trying to figure out the differences that that's kind of the important way to go. And back to Emily. Your, um, I'll call it distaste for for NetSuite, which what you alluded to, it sounds like, because we're coming off of a real technical component there, it sounds like your your beef is more on the kind [00:22:30] of the front end, the sales process as opposed to the actual software itself. I mean, is that a safe assumption? Are there are there features similar to like what Matt's describing here inside, you know, Intacct versus NetSuite that you feel are just either inferior or, you know, phenomenally better than one or another?

Emily Madere: There's there's definitely a couple other inferior, um, NetSuite modules. Um, but yeah, I think, I think my, my concern with NetSuite comes with their support and their sales [00:23:00] process about these modules. So for example, Matt just went into great detail about the the allocations module inside of Sage Intacct. If you were to get into competitive situation, um, with intact and NetSuite, I just, I just would wonder what NetSuite would say about that, their module. Would they say it's the same as Sage Intacct? Would they even show you how it's different? These are things I don't know.

Matt Lescault: Sounded to me, Doug, like she said, I've experienced some some of my [00:23:30] experiences have have lost trust, have taken trust away from me that that my clients are getting good information in their buying journey. That's what it sounded like.

Emily Madere: Yes.

Emily Madere: And one thing about, you know, my firm, my team, our practice is we're we're consultants at heart. So if Intacct is not the right solution for you, that's fine. Like, you know, we we do work with, um, a NetSuite partner that practices the same as us, and we'll [00:24:00] send you to them. So, um, you know, it really just it really just depends. We're going to be honest with you. If Intacct is not the right fit.

Doug Lewis: Uh, all right. So to, to kind of jump into to. It's not like a closing argument thing, but, you know, just personal experiences from the two of you. All right. Why would somebody choose one over the other? We're talking NetSuite Intacct truth table. Everything else has been excluded. You got a customer who's looking to implement this thing. The pricing is comparable. So that's [00:24:30] out of the picture. What's it really going to come down to between NetSuite and Intacct? Matt, you want to kick that one off?

Matt Lescault: Sure. I mean, I'm going to be a broken record. What industry are you in?

Doug Lewis: Oh come on, we don't want to do this one again. All right.

Matt Lescault: No no no no no no it's fine. I'm not asking.

Matt Lescault: You to give that to me. That is my one question that I would have for anybody doing it.

Doug Lewis: I was looking forward to the role play because you actually went through some of the statistics of the industry. So I was going to make it really hard for you. But no.

Doug Lewis: No, no.

Matt Lescault: Come on, come on. No no no no no. Please [00:25:00] go.

Doug Lewis: It depends on your industry. We'll leave it at that.

Doug Lewis: We'll leave it at that.

Matt Lescault: Well, it depends on your industry and my. My team makes fun of me because they'll ask me for questions and I'll always start with it. A depends. Um, depends on the industry, but also within that industry. What is your feature need? What is what is important to you? Um, within that product. And there's different levels of need. I mean, the financial services firms that don't need dynamic allocations. And therefore that argument [00:25:30] comes out of the the equation. Same thing with and I'm not gonna use non-profits because non-profits always win with intact in my opinion because of the grant solutions that are in there. Um, you know, healthcare, I think that, you know, you have, you know, some organizations need the HIPAA compliant audit, uh, tracking that is in, in intact. And I'm not sure what NetSuite provides on the healthcare side to.

Emily Madere: And I can I can interject here. Um, so NetSuite in their last conference released that they [00:26:00] say they loosely will sign a bar with the client. It's different because intact themselves will sign a bar, um, to maintain HIPAA compliance with the client. Netsuite outsources their bar and I'm not sure how that works. I haven't done enough research, but I can tell you that is a thing.

Matt Lescault: You shouldn't be listening to this. If you're even listening to this, uh, you should be listening to this and saying, now I'm going to by intact, I want you to listen to this and say, man, I know that I need to ask [00:26:30] a lot more questions as I go through this buying cycle and really understand what I'm trying to achieve within the software, what I'm trying to, what I'm trying to automate. I'll give you another quick little silly story. Um, the way I operate and manage my finance team, uh, every so often, maybe once a month. My question is, is any of you doing any of your work in Excel? And I'll have somebody raise their hand. I'm like, okay, what are you doing?

Matt Lescault: Can you tell.

Doug Lewis: Fired.

Matt Lescault: No, no no no.

Doug Lewis: You [00:27:00] are the you are the big boss.

Doug Lewis: He just comes in swinging every day.

Matt Lescault: I'm like so tell me what you're doing. And they'll tell me. I'll say, okay, this is how we're going to solve this. So it's in the system. You know, I'm here in Canada. I was here for account checks, and Aaron Harris talked, uh, the first day, I was, uh, thankful to be asked to be on the panel. The second day. Not my point. Aaron Harris talked about the continuous close. What impacts goal of a continuous goal close. Uh, and the concept of continuous close is [00:27:30] the idea is that we're not waiting for the month to get real time data. Every day is a close. Every day we're we're we're fully reconciled. Basically, we're fully reconciled. We might not we might not finalize that bank reconciliation process within within intact. But we're fully operational at day to day basis. The only way you get there is if everything you're doing is in the system. And the reason I bring, I bring all this up is that those are the processes. If when I, when I talk [00:28:00] to clients that are looking to change systems, it's what are you currently doing in Excel? What reports aren't you getting in the system? What's your approval process? Is how manual are those? These are all the questions that give give an idea of what feature sets, what modules are necessary to solve those problems. And now you can make an educated decision as to what product wins for your organization.

Doug Lewis: And kind of feeding off of which one is, you know, going to be the best fit for [00:28:30] you. Obviously, industry is, you know, it's going to be the first starting point and everything second. The second component is probably size. And you know.

Matt Lescault: Oh, I hate that one.

Doug Lewis: Well, yeah, I know you probably do more than anybody, but you know, well, you know, it is what it is.

Matt Lescault: I just I just.

Matt Lescault: Had multiple conversations about why this is needs to go away in a conversation.

Doug Lewis: Well, that's what I was leading to. So over the years, by the way, I'm. I am Switzerland. I am as neutral as you can possibly be with my software. You go to my website. [00:29:00] I don't have any software providers anywhere. I have no official part. None of that. Right?

Matt Lescault: Do you guys even have an accounting software?

Doug Lewis: Of course you do. I'm not going to share anything about that, though. Listen, I got I got my hands in a lot of pots, all right? But realistically, something I've heard over the years. Is it again, you can call BS or no BS on this, but I want to put the statement out there. I've heard multiple times that people go, uh, whatever program I'm on currently, whether it's, you know, QuickBooks or Intacct or any of the other players out there, I [00:29:30] outgrew it and I needed a true enterprise solution because we just got too big. So NetSuite was the next logical step for us kind of in that journey. Whether they were sold that messaging, whether they heard it from somebody else, God knows what it is. Is there any truth to that whatsoever in the two of your opinions on the sense that if we're looking at a true enterprise level, large, large organizations, NetSuite should win out? Every time I.

Emily Madere: Hear that all the time, I hear that all the time. So, [00:30:00] um, so I'm working with, you know, someone who's on QuickBooks, and they think intact in their imaginary scale, they think intact is lower than NetSuite all the time. Um, lower.

Doug Lewis: In terms of, like, lower organizations that sizes that use it.

Emily Madere: Like what? Yeah. In size that they use it in capability and functionality. Um, and honestly, I do I'm going to give kudos to NetSuite. They they do. Excellent advertisement. You can see NetSuite. Advertisement. You can see Oracle and advertisement [00:30:30] everywhere. I think Sage is going there. They um, I think last year they just sponsored MLB. So they're trying to get, you know, their name out there. They're trying to get people to recognize the Sage brand. But I think NetSuite has done an excellent job of that. And that's where that stemming from from a hey, I'm on QuickBooks. I need to evaluate an ERP. You need you need to look at intact in NetSuite. As we you know, we've just spent however long 30 minutes talking about. They're essentially the same product [00:31:00] with just nuances between them.

Doug Lewis: Matt. Thoughts on the true enterprise, uh, dominance that is claimed at. Least publicly by, uh, by NetSuite.

Matt Lescault: Is Netsuite SAP.

Doug Lewis: It seems like this is a double. Double edged question here.

Matt Lescault: I yeah, well, I mean both Oracle products, right?

Doug Lewis: Yep.

Matt Lescault: And I think the fact that NetSuite has the Oracle name gives that perception. Because if you look [00:31:30] at it intact and NetSuite attack the same client base or or target market. Now again, industry could change that but not size. Neither of them are suited for a 40 000 person organization. Okay. Um, and again, why am I doing I'm doing my own my own stupidity. And I'm sorry about that. I don't care how many employees. I don't care what your revenue is. I care what your needs are and [00:32:00] even a lot, a lot of accountants that I talk to are like, you know, people don't go to, to, to intact until like 5 million in revenue. I'm like, no, no, that's that's not true. Where they need to be at least 50 employees. No, this is not the conversation we should be having now.

Doug Lewis: Those come from potential customers of yours or existing customers or.

Doug Lewis: Who's that coming from? Accounting, from accountants specifically that.

Matt Lescault: Are suggesting software to their clients.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. Okay.

Matt Lescault: And I'm like, please, let's, let's [00:32:30] let's reframe. Let's rephrase how we're thinking about this, because it's what the client needs from a solution architecture perspective, not their size. I have I have examples of organizations that are a million, million, two in revenue that, uh, that need needed desperately to have intact to solve, uh, solve issues when it came to their reporting, when it came to their management, of their financials. [00:33:00] I have seen organizations at 20 and 30 million that have no business moving away from QuickBooks.

Doug Lewis: So now so just from like a pure cost perspective, in that example, if $1 million organization, uh, does let's, let's call it upgrade from QuickBooks out of necessity, like you just alluded to there, because they truly need the features and functionality. Uh, whether it is a, you know, a NetSuite or Intacct or whoever it might be. Do you find that organizations with [00:33:30] that size revenue. And of course, it's going to vary by the type of business it is, but does that put a financial strain on them to make that shift and invest more? Because let's be honest, it does often cost significantly more to to move from QuickBooks to a, a more, uh, kind of holistic solution that we talk about here.

Emily Madere: And I and I would I would like to add on Revenue. For me specifically, it does matter just because like Doug mentioned, it is an investment [00:34:00] and I could be working with a client who's 1 million, but they're asking for dynamic allocations. They're asking for spin management. If they're a nonprofit, they're asking for all these things. And the price is just too much on an annual spend.

Matt Lescault: I'm going to I'm going to jump in here and I'm going to say, if we only look at the cost of something and what we're paying for it, we're not looking at the true cost to the organization. If and and yes, look there's always budget and maybe organization [00:34:30] could use dynamic allocations. Let's pick on a nonprofit here. Could use dynamic allocations but absolutely needs grant tracking and billing because QuickBooks does not solve that for them. And from a budgetary perspective, we have to remove dynamic allocations. There still could be a use case of going to index number one.

Matt Lescault: Number two,what if that same organization has a four person headcount in their accountant, in their accounting department as a $1.2 million [00:35:00] organization, because their finance operations are so inefficient that they have to spend that cost and that in that one additional, maybe one additional.

Emily Madere: Let me let let let me just stop you there because I did have a client ask me this. So you're telling me and I'm playing devil's advocate here. So you're telling me my accounting team of four, I'm going to use Sage Intacct. It's going to automate and stuff. So in tax is going to replace one of my valued employees who's whose family.

Matt Lescault: Um that [00:35:30] and then there's the Or. And it's not like replace. I'm not I'm not advocating to replace people. But if you're evaluating the cost of something, you have to evaluate the full component of the cost. What opportunity cost is there by not doing it? Is your accounting team of five spending so much time that they're just doing transactional work. They're just doing the accounting, and they're not reviewing or analyzing or providing feedback. That allows for other [00:36:00] opportunities for growth for the organization. Or are we sitting here and putting them in the right position to be of true value to the organization? I don't like I don't like these conversations. I don't like these thought processes because this is the way we've always thought about it. We've thought about it from what is the cost to us to implement this, or what does it cost to the software? And we're not talking about how we can drive our organizations to be better. Simple as that.

Emily Madere: I [00:36:30] don't know, I don't know, I'm I think we may agree to disagree here, because when they get the price tag of intact and implementation for a small company, they're only focused on the number, right? It's hard for them to get. I see. I know what you're saying, Matt, because I do this every day. But it's hard for organizations to be focused on anything but the $50,000 price tag.

Doug Lewis: I want to throw a virtual knife into this this recording here. I wish we were in the same room doing this this time. This would [00:37:00] be fun. Um, because it is healthy to disagree, of course. And that's why we're doing this thing, because it's listen, it's not one size fits all. Everything we talk about here. And oftentimes there's going to be people that just solely they're going to base everything from a decision standpoint based on the price. Right. They don't care if the implementation is subpar, if it's not the right fit or whatever. And obviously those probably aren't the right fits for a lot of people to really implement. But, um, that's beside the point. I was just more curious because you said that it's such a wide range of we do have these smaller entities who make these investments out of [00:37:30] necessity, and we have these larger entities that don't even need it because they have such a simplistic business model that it doesn't add or take away anything. So there really is no one size fits all but a common theme. It seems like both of you can at least agree on this one thing that even though we're not, we are not selling intact. More often than not, intact will be a better fit for the general organization you talk to than a NetSuite. Is that a state? Can we all agree? Can we? Can we come together [00:38:00] in a Kumbaya circle and agree that that's kind of what the two of you have been getting at?

Matt Lescault: I'm at first they, like me and Emily, respectfully disagree on things, and we agree on many things as well. So, you know, we had a moment of disagreement. And I'm going to add one last thing to our knife fight.

Doug Lewis: We hate your hair. Start getting personal. My hair.

Matt Lescault: Hated me. Let's be honest.

Matt Lescault: Um.

Matt Lescault: We [00:38:30] all know what's happening in this industry. Accountants are retiring quicker than we're filling the positions. Our accountants are overworked more today than they've ever been in the past. If you want to maintain your staff, you better figure out automation and figure out how to solve some of this. So it may not be the losing a headcount may not even be getting the value out there. I believe in the value added services for my staff. Personally, I want I want high [00:39:00] level information, but you got to be ready to do more with less. And that's there's a real reality there. I also want to say like we figured out how to deploy from a, from an implementation as low as $10,000 for a small nonprofit to get the value out of intact. So, I mean, I don't want I don't want there to be this misnomer that every implementation is going to be 20, 30, 40, $50,000. It's not the case. Now, 10,000 is still not a small sum of money. I don't want to. [00:39:30] I don't want to. I don't want to disrespect anybody from a budget perspective. But it's a it's a far cry from some of the price tags that are thrown out there, uh, in the marketplace.

Emily Madere: And that I think, Matt, what you just said ties back to what I've been saying this entire podcast. This entire when we first started is finding the right partner.

Matt Lescault: Absolutely.

Doug Lewis: That's funny, because that kind of seems, Emily, what you said at the beginning where where your disdain from that suite stems from. It's all about like [00:40:00] the kind of forceful sales process or the not thought out sales process on the front end. And, you know, the customer service and the whole buying journey is paramount of importance now to pretty much every industry, because everyone's scrapping over revenue right now and strapped resources. So, um, that was nice that it came kind of full circle there, I like that. And we're back on the same team. All right.

Matt Lescault: And I do want to say something like, sweet, success is not what they do for every single client. It is a it is [00:40:30] a tactic to, to reduce that, uh, that costs to uh, to acquisition from a, from a total Perspective, and there's a lot of firms that go into NetSuite that hire good partners to get it implemented and get a great product. And I want to be very clear there, because I certainly don't want to get a target on my back from from NetSuite. And they're saying that, you know, we're we're saying falsehoods about them because that's not the case. That is one tactic. There is other tactics, and [00:41:00] there is always a place for competition and good fit across the board, and not just between intact and NetSuite, but a myriad of products.

Doug Lewis: Hit that legal disclaimer perfectly, which I love. Yeah, I was gonna say, like, again, we're not we're not here to sell anybody intacct we're just here to talk about the differences, whether they are good or bad or or ugly every time. You can't say that one enough. Um, Emily, one more shot at Matt before we cap this one here. It's in your court. You got anything for him? Um. [00:41:30]

Emily Madere: No, I mean, I think I think we were. We're doing this podcast to disagree, to agree to talk about it. So I think we have different opinions, and we have a place where we can talk about those things. Some people are going to agree with me, some people are going to agree with Matt, some people are going to agree with you, which.

Doug Lewis: Most will believe that most, most will. What would you say?

Doug Lewis: That's the thing. I've tactically played both sides of this fence. I sit right there on the fence every time, no matter where. No, [00:42:00] um, you know, there's like you said, it's a green field of opportunity for so many people if you don't have any competition in the space. I mean, you're just you're probably doing something wrong, to be honest with you, because you're not winning enough. Um, and that that's kind of the way I look at this. So there's, there's opportunity for everybody to play nicely. There's just it all comes down to fit. And you're not going to know that until you explore all the opportunities and people like yourselves who are out there selling and implementing these, these opportunities, you're going to be the ones who are honestly going to be figuring out what's the best fit for a lot of these organizations who are curious about [00:42:30] where to go with this thing. So that's fun to wrap it, though, um, to bring up the mood, or maybe down the mood, depending on how bad or good this goes, I think. I think we're due for just a horrible dad joke. Um, that I'll. I'll give it to both of you. If either one of you wants to take a crack at one, I.

Emily Madere: Have one, I have one I came, Emily's.

Doug Lewis: Got one prepped, and I love that I.

Emily Madere: Got one, I got one, all right? Emily. Okay, I heard this ad, um, the Sage sales kickoff, by the way. So why couldn't two dinosaurs give each other high fives?

Doug Lewis: Boy, [00:43:00] my mind went straight to the gutter. Um, and I won't say that one on on tape here.

Doug Lewis: But I don't I don't have a I don't have a clean. Good guess. Uh, hey, Matt.

Emily Madere: This is really gonna. This is gonna blow your mind because they're extinct.

Doug Lewis: Uh oh. Come on.

Emily Madere: I mean, I.

Doug Lewis: Mean, get out of here. That's. That felt like a cheating one. All right, Matt's [00:43:30] laughing. Okay? I'm laughing.

Matt Lescault: At how bad that was.

Doug Lewis: It was. That was a rough one. But you know what? That's okay. That's why they're not all winners, you know, unless they're mine. And even in that case, maybe only half of them are winners. Uh, but that's that's a good one. At least that's fun. Uh, to end it on. Thanks. Thanks for listening, guys. Uh, join again next time, and we'll, uh, we'll we'll throw up. I think we got a couple guests on the books here coming up in the in the future, uh, next couple of weeks, which will be exciting. Um, again. So you don't have to listen to the three of us. Just hack it out on her own here, and [00:44:00] then, uh, we're going to start going one by one. So similar to what we did today, we're going to go through all the competitors out there of intact, uh, just to hit hit like Matt alluded to some of the the features, what's good, what's a good fit. What we don't like about either one. And, uh, we'll eventually see who comes out on top. But that'll be years from now. Years from now when we just keep doing this. So thanks for listening, guys, and we'll talk to you soon.

Matt Lescault: Awesome. Thank you.

Emily Madere: Bye.